Mascoma Corporation announced
that the company has made major
research advances in consolidated
bioprocessing, or CBP, a low-cost
processing strategy for production
of biofuels from cellulosic
biomass. CBP avoids the need
for the costly production of
cellulase enzymes by using engineered
microorganisms that produce
cellulases and ethanol at high
yield in a single step.

“This is a true breakthrough
that takes us much, much closer
to billions of gallons of low
cost cellulosic biofuels,” said
Michigan State University’s
Dr. Bruce Dale. “Many had thought
that CBP was years or even decades
away, but the future just arrived.
Mascoma has permanently changed
the biofuels landscape from
here on.”

In a recent Forbes article,
biofuels expert Helena Chum
of the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden, Colorado,
commented on CBP, saying “This
is the golden dream. All of
the processes in one super-organism.
That would be the lowest cost
possible.” A prominent DOE/USDA
research agenda states that
“CBP is widely considered to
be the ultimate low-cost configuration
for cellulose hydrolysis and
fermentation.”

Multiple research advances presented
by Mascoma chief technology
officer Dr. Mike Ladisch at
the Symposium on Biotechnology
for Fuels and Chemicals in San
Francisco provide proof of concept
for CBP. These include advances
with both bacteria that grow
at high temperatures, called
thermophiles, and recombinant
cellulolytic yeasts such as:

Thermophilic Bacteria

•Production of nearly 6 percent
wt/vol ethanol by an engineered
thermophilie, an increase of
60 percent over what was reported
just a year ago;

•The first report of targeted
metabolic engineering of a cellulose-fermenting
thermophile, Clostridium thermocellum,
leading to a reduced production
of unwanted organic acid byproducts;
and

•Selected strains of C. thermocellum
that can rapidly consume cellulose
with high conversion and no
added cellulase, and grow on
cellulose in the presence of
commercial levels of ethanol.

Recombinant, Cellulolytic Yeast

•3,000-fold increase in cellulase
expression;

•A significant 2.5-fold reduction
in the added cellulase required
for conversion of pretreated
hardwood to ethanol; and

•Complete elimination of added
cellulase for conversion of
waste paper sludge to ethanol.

In February 2009, Mascoma’s
pilot facility in Rome, New
York began producing cellulosic
ethanol. The demonstration facility
has the flexibility to run on
numerous biomass feedstocks
including wood chips, tall grasses,
corn stover (residual corn stalks)
and sugar cane bagasse. The
facility will provide process
performance engineering data
sufficient to support construction
of 1/10th scale and commercial
scale biorefineries in Kinross,
Michigan, with support from
the Department of Energy and
State of Michigan.